"Brother?" Feng Tu instinctively recoiled from the hammer in Gan Jing's hand. Unlike Duan Feng Bu Er, the carving on the hammer showed no change, yet the look in everyone's eyes was vastly different.

Mu Ne Zhen Ce stared intently at the hammer for a long moment, then slowly looked up and sighed, his voice laced with ineffable sorrow: "Imperial power is truly an environment saturated with cruelty. Relationships of blood are more fragile than a piece of tissue paper in the face of imperial authority…"

In those few short seconds, Mu Ne Zhen Ce felt as if he had traversed millennia of the royal family's history, witnessing the brutal and bloody struggle for that single Emperor's throne.

Parricide, matricide, fratricide! All for that chair—which so many viewed as the absolute apex, the ultimate power—who could count the oceans of blood, the depths of hatred, the crushing weight of grievances piled beneath it?

"Is the path of the ruler an unforgiving road of no return?" Mu Ne Zhen Ce suddenly lashed out with a punch toward the sky. The surrounding currents of hot air seemed to be momentarily suppressed by the sheer force of his strike.

A punch of light, magnificence, and sheer grandeur! Gan Jing watched Mu Ne Zhen Ce with admiration. This classmate he had met at the Academy, who once exuded confidence, composure, and calm—striving to project the aura and bearing of someone towering over multitudes—only now seemed to be truly maturing.

Not a pretense or an imitation like before! He had forged a path entirely his own, finding the way inherent to every powerful warrior, the unique Emperor's Path belonging solely to Mu Ne Zhen Ce!

Every warrior should possess their own Warrior's Way. Take, for instance, the warriors of the Fen Tu lineage; their way is often the simple, direct path of defending the nation, a path that has sustained their family on a road of glory for countless years.

"Imperial power is not solely defined by darkness, cruelty, and coldness." Mu Ne Zhen Ce strode forward, his presence capable of swallowing mountains and rivers. With a casual lift of his hand, he radiated the regal majesty of an emperor commanding the realm: "Emperor Fu Long Zhen Ce once walked the King's Way, pursuing righteousness, acting with transparency, and speaking with integrity, establishing the unshakeable foundation of this Zhen Ce Dynasty! What our ancestors achieved, I, Mu Ne Zhen Ce, can achieve just the same!"

In those few brief sentences, the aura emanating from Mu Ne Zhen Ce swelled even further. The War Soul behind him, previously resembling a prince in fine silks and jade belts, began to subtly transform, taking the form of a true Emperor clad in imperial robes and crowned with a diadem.

From prince to emperor—this was a transformation in Mu Ne Zhen Ce's mentality, a shift in his Warrior's Way, and the preordained alteration of his life's trajectory.

A monumental change! Those two unfamiliar glyphs, in this instant, were reshaping and remolding the Warrior's Ways of everyone present.

No one could have predicted that a single Sacred Artifact would precipitate such a miraculous event.

Gan Jing snapped out of his contemplation, smiling faintly as he looked at the Sacred Artifact in his hand. This truly was a stroke of luck within luck. Because of Che Ke Fu Li Te achieving Sainthood, everyone had gained an ineffable sense of comprehension; normally, seeing these specific sigils would spark no such associations.

Luck! Gan Jing could only attribute this turn of events to sheer luck. Ever since that desperate battle in the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea where they nearly died together, it seemed all their accumulated bad luck had been exhausted. These past days, they had continuously reaped benefits they wouldn't dare dream of normally, and these boons kept coming in succession.

The journey into the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea had brought more than mere increases in Dou Qi; far more critical was the elevation in Realm. A life-or-death struggle brought a spiritual tempering that surpassed even their previous foray into the Demon Realm.

Though young, they had experienced far more than their peers: deadly combat, familial conspiracy, the hopes of their kin…

Any single one of these experiences could mature a person overnight, yet they had collectively endured all of them once, twice, even three or five times over.

In terms of sheer intellect, they were far more mature than their actual ages suggested. These trials integrated into their Dou Qi; these insights merged into their fist techniques and blade skills; these life lessons completely merged with their personal Warrior's Ways, leading to a new qualitative leap in their combat prowess.

"I want to go deeper into the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea." Duan Feng Bu Er looked with a grin toward the distant expanse of yellow sand, his face alight with eagerness and impulse.

What was the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea? Danger, death, and boundless treasures—these elements comprised one of the most mysterious territories. Even Gan Zhan Xuan, an expert of the Heaven's Apex Awakening lineage, could not reach the Sea's end; it seemed truly limitless, inhabited by top-tier Super-Class Demonic Beasts that even Gan Zhan Xuan would hesitate to provoke.

The Demon Cores, flesh, and very bodies of those Super-Class beasts! Every component was an object dreamed of by Alchemists, Mystic Alchemists, and Inscription Masters.

While the group couldn't slay top-tier Super-Class Demonic Beasts, taking down Advanced-Class ones was entirely within their grasp. As long as they didn't recklessly slaughter everything in sight, infuriating the surrounding beasts, and didn't inadvertently encroach upon the territory of Super-Beasts, provoking a collective, maddened assault, they might retain a slim margin of safety.

Of course, this margin of safety was a hundred, perhaps even a thousand times more perilous than the Human-Demon Battlefield.

In the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea, no one knew what they might encounter.

Bloodline warriors who reached the Heaven's Apex Awakening level had entered and never returned—and this had happened more than once.

Consequently, even warriors of the Heaven's Apex Awakening bloodline were reluctant to provoke this place carelessly.

"Go! We absolutely must go!" Gan Jing also laughed. This time they had acquired a batch of Sacred Artifacts. If they were used to arm just one person, it would be more than enough. But distributed among everyone, it amounted to only one or two Sacred Artifacts per person.

Even this quantity—one or two Sacred Artifacts—would earn the admiration of any major, top-tier bloodline family, but it was still insufficient. Far from enough.

"If there aren't enough Sacred Artifacts, I'll forge them myself! If I can't make a Sacred Artifact, can't I at least make a Soul Artifact?" Gan Jing looked at the hammer in his hand, which resembled a Sacred Artifact. A good blacksmith first requires excellent tools and materials.

This forging hammer was of the Sacred Artifact grade. Even a novice blacksmith, provided they could wield this hammer, could forge any piece of equipment whose power would far surpass their normal strength by several, even dozens, of times.

Materials! Gan Jing had a decent supply, but he urgently needed more and more.

The durability of Soul Weapons was far superior to that of Dou Weapons. Although they couldn't match the level of a Sacred Artifact, a complete, perfectly harmonized set of Soul Armor could unleash power comparable to a Sacred Artifact.

"Then I want to pre-order a full set of Soul Armor, the kind best suited for a Nine-Headed Serpent bloodline warrior, capable of unleashing their absolute full potential!"

"I'll order a standard warrior set…"

"Me too, but the appearance must be spectacularly flamboyant, this prince… ouch… Bu Er, how dare you kick the butt of the future emperor…"

"The hell you are, you peacock six! The Serpent Emperor used to kick your dad, and now I can kick your butt…"

"Damn it! Then I might become the most spiritless emperor in history…"

Gan Jing’s gaze shifted to Che Ke Fu Li Te. The Fallen Angel bloodline Martial Artist unfolded his Concealment Soul Domain, and the auras of the group quickly vanished into the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea. They could see each other's forms, but creatures outside the Soul Domain would have immense difficulty spotting the slowly advancing group.

Walking within the Concealment Soul Domain, Gan Jing couldn't help but repeatedly marvel. If they had possessed this domain that day, Brother Che wouldn't have lost an eye, and none of them would have been injured.

But then again, without those injuries, they wouldn't have been able to consume the vast essence of the Lucifer's Hearts in such a short time, achieving successive breakthroughs and growth.

Amidst the sandstorm, a nearly invisible squad pressed slowly deeper into the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea.

The deeper they ventured, the more the scorching air intensified. After traversing dozens of miles of yellow sand, they suddenly witnessed swarms of Blazing Sun Mantises locked in fierce combat with a group of Cinder Sand Crabs. The Demonic Beasts occasionally let out agonizing cries as their bodies were shattered by the opposing forces' magic and physical attacks.

These packs of beasts had long adapted entirely to the survival laws of the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea, showing no mercy to each other and possessing a degree of tactical coordination.

A massive Blazing Sun Mantis, entirely fire-red, its body towering ten meters high, wielded two mantis blades that shimmered with layers of magical inscriptions, granting various buffs to its allies. This caused the surrounding Mantises, only about three meters tall, to fly into a frenzy.

The leader of the Cinder Sand Crabs stood over eight meters tall, its thick, red carapace gleaming with dazzling magical inscriptions. It spewed bubbles from its mouth, each bubble exploding into a spell, buffing the Cinder Sand Crabs that were about four meters high.

Neither side held weapons forged from true metal, yet the sounds of their brutal clashes were in no way less intense than those on the Human-Demon Battlefield.

The golden sand suddenly churned violently, and a colossal Viper, twenty meters long, erupted from beneath the ground. Its tail swept out, shattering the back of a Cinder Sand Crab in a single blow. The golden Demon Core was then skillfully hooked out by the massive tail with surprising dexterity. Its mouth, large enough to swallow a man whole, gaped open, and a red tongue snaked out, coiling around the Demon Core.

"What the hell! Leave the Demon Core for me!"

Duan Feng Bu Er's eyes swept across the surrounding beasts. His Nine-Headed Serpent Bloodline War Body was pushed to its limit. With a flash, he shot forward, releasing the dominant aura of the Serpent King. This caused the massive Viper to freeze instinctively. Its black-gem-like eyes flickered with terror and curiosity, unable to comprehend why something bearing the aura of the Serpent King had suddenly emerged from the seemingly harmless sandy ground.

In that brief moment of stunned surprise, Duan Feng Bu Er was already on top of the Viper's head. The claws on his right hand extended like the sharpest fangs, easily piercing the Viper's skull: "Swallow this!"